Often mobility impaired patients must be transferred to and from hospital beds, examination tables and operating tables. Traditional devices, including wheeled gurneys and stretchers, often require the use of several personnel to affect transfer, which can require pulling personnel from other jobs or functions, if only momentarily, to assist. Transfers using these devices can lead be very evasive to the patient and the staff. These devices can result in additional injury and stress to both the patient and the staff if the transfer process is not meticulously followed by all involved. Even if transfers are affected according to procedure, they still allow and even cause significant body movement of the patient that can result in patient stress, pain, injury, and discomfort. Usually, if the patient is cooperative and not injured or disabled, it is a simple matter for the individual to slide over to the gurney with the assistance of a nurse, but if the patient is unconscious or has a disability or an injury (e.g., a broken bone) that might be worsened by movement, then great care must be taken in transferring the patient from a bed to a gurney. This problem is exacerbated when the patient is above average weight.
One solution to the disabled or unconscious patient transfer problem is to slide a tray or sheet under the patient and then, after the patient is resting atop it, pull the tray or sheet off the bed and onto the gurney. A rigid tray can usually be forcibly slid between the patient and the bed, and a sheet can be incrementally pushed under the person by first rocking him away from the gurney and then rocking back toward the gurney as the sheet is drawn under. This approach can still be difficult if the patient is uncooperative (i.e., unconscious), and can further be very uncomfortable even if the patient is cooperative, due to the frictional engagement of the tray with the body or the lack of firm support by the sheet.
Automated transfer devices have been proposed that reduce the number of workers required for a transfer and make the transfers safer and less traumatic for the patient. However, devices proposed to date have all suffered from one or more drawbacks and have not seen widespread implementation.